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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Past and Future of Yanmega/Magnezone

Hi – and
welcome back to The Deck Out!

As promised, it's time for some magnetic craziness. In today's update, I will discuss Magnezone/Yanmega and how it can be made as tournament-viable as possible. First, let's take a look at the skeleton.

As I mentioned in one of my previous blog updates, Magnezone/Yanmega’s skeleton
has room for almost anything you want to put in there. As you can see this
skeleton has 11 spaces for something. This skeleton already has a lot of
supporters and Catchers so most skeletons have even more space. However my main
goal in this update is to investigate how to make Magnezone/Yanmega playable
once again. But before I do that, I must remind you, what kind of deck
Magnezone/Yanmega was before Catcher was released.

It’s amazing how all this fits into a deck and still making it fairly
consistent. There are things like Absol Prime, thick Kingdra line and even
Jirachi and 4-4 Yanmega line. But the problem lies within Pokémon Catcher. With
Catcher around you can’t say that this deck is consistent. As long as your
opponent understands to Catcher your Magnezones and Magnemites, this deck loses
all its steam. Pretty much every deck in the present metagame, just runs
through this deck with speed and consistency. You can’t use Judge to disturb
them because you will just ruin your own game. I have said bad things about
this kind of Yanmega/Magnezone for a while now in this format so I guess, I
will take a positive point of view once for this deck. That’s why I shall give
you…

As you can see, my vision of the future Magnezone/Yanmega differs greatly from
the past Magnezone/Yanmega. My Yanmega/Magnezone aims at maximum consistency
and continuous Magnetic Draw despite the Catchers. It also runs fair amount of
Energy and 2 Pachirisus. It also
runs Energy Retrieval; it seems I’m aiming at an energy heavy deck here.
Indeed, I’m trying to get this deck hitting massive damage every time needed.

This deck aims to hit with Yanmega the few early prizes just like the past
Magnezone but with this build, it’s manageable to keep Magnezones alive all the
time. Thick 4-2-4 line guarantees that your opponent can’t be OHKOing your
Magnezones all the time, he/she will eventually run out of resources if she/he
tries it. After the short introduction into the deck, it’s time for some more
explaining for the chosen cards.

Card Choices

2 Pachirisus
+ Shaymin

These 3 cards are the heart of this deck. These cards are all “teches” this
version needs. With these Pokémon you can easily make Magnezone hit 3-4 times
150 damage almost every turn and take the remaining prizes with Yanmega Primes.
Magnezone works in my opinion the best with energy acceleration because it
combos with Magnetic Draw power – the more you accelerate energy from your
hand, the more you draw cards with Magnezone Prime.

If your opponent tries to KO Magnezone that doesn’t have energies on it and
can’t OHKO it you have Shaymin here which helps to move energies to the active
Magnezone. Shaymin + Pachirisu combo also works as in a Zekrom deck. You can
easily come from 0 energies to 150 damage in a single turn.

Sage’s Training

I haven’t
personally likes Sage’s Training in Yanmega/Magnezone before but now the winds
have changed. You need to get Magnezone to play ASAP and this time you’re
allowed to discard energies because of huge amount of energies you’re running
compared to previous versions. Sage’s lets you also discard tech trainer cards
like SSU and Energy Retrieval which are easy to get from discard pile with Junk
Arm. 3 Sage’s should be enough to get T2 Magnezone regularly and T3 Magnezone
always. Sage’s has always had a good synergy with Junk Arm but in this deck it
works even better than before.

Switch & Super Scoop Up

Magnezone’s retreat
is ridiculous – 3 – that’s a known fact. Before I ran 2 Switches because the
needed to get Magnezone from the active position whenever it was incapable of
attacking. In this deck I only need Switch for emergency situations. Magnezones
should be able to hit every turn possible because of Shaymin, Pachirisu and Super
Scoop Up. You are able to load Magnezone Prime any time you need to.

Super Scoop is mostly used for Pachirisu or Shaymin. Probably you will use it
more on Shaymin because you already have 2 Pachirisus in the list. In emergency
situations SSU will also work like a Switch and it can win you the game if you
scoop any Pokémon that is just a few damage away from getting Knocked Out. You
can easily run 1 of both because they are anyways usually used by Junk Arm
whenever you need them and discarded by Sage’s. Switch and SSU are great
trainer teches for almost any deck in the format but in this deck they work
extremely well.

Energy Retrieval

I’ve discussed
Energy Retrieval before in this update but to repeat, its purpose is to get
energies back from discard pile which you will discard with Sage’s. This way
you don’t worry about energies while using Sage’s and can focus on getting more
important cards like Candies and Pokémon lines from Sage’s. Energy Retrieval
works also great against decks like ReshiPlosion because sometimes they try to
hurt you by discarding energies with Flare Destroy. Energy Retrieval nullifies
the effect from Flare Destroy because this dek has a great energy acceleration
as long you have energies in your hand.

Flower Shop Lady

Flower Shop is only
a natural continuation for this deck’s strategy. This list is all about
consistency and full steam ahead until the last prize. Flower Shop Lady works
as a second Energy Retrieval and it lets you get back the precious Magnemites
and Magnezone’s from your discard pile. You don’t always have time using Flower
Shop Lady in the game because of other Supporters but usually when you do have
time, it helps you a lot.

Past vs.
Future

As you can see this
deck is a whole different deck than the past version. It carries the same name
but it’s very different compared to the past version. The past version’s
strategy was a much more complicated and versatile but the future version
focuses only on full-steam-ahead –strategy. It tries to take 6 prizes without
any tricks, first you use Yanmegas and Catchers to take 2-3 easy prizes and
then you come attacking with Magnezone 3 times to clean the rest of the field. It’s
not difficult and it should be easily manageable.
The future version also abandons the disturbing your completely and just
focuses on fulfilling its own strategy. I ran 2 Judges but you can also ran 2
copycats if you think copycats help you more. The only meaning of
Shuffle&Draws is to guarantee the hitting capability of Yanmega in the early
turns. Judge may be a better choice because if you get a Catcher from Judge,
you can still use it and Magnetic Draw to get back to 4 cards in your hand.

The past problems

As said earlier, the past version was a lot more versatile than the future
version. In my opinion the past version had only 2 serious problems – it ran
out of resources easily against decks like ReshiPlosion and it needed Reversal
headses to win games. Of course the second problem is now fixed with Catcher
but now it still may run out of gas and it has faced a new – even more severe –
problem because of catcher.

In fact the resources problem was the reason I didn’t play it for Worlds and I
got a reminder of it 1 of my Worlds’ match. In one of my game, I managed to
deck out Con Le, who was playing this deck because I realized he had ran out of
all resources and if he wanted to attack with Yanmega, he would have to use
Copycat to deck himself out instantaneously.

The past version focused on not autolosing to anything and it managed it to do
fairly well. It had strategy against everything and was a great deck with full
of combos. However it now, the pat version will have too much consistency
problem because of faster decks and Catcher. The time has overrun the past.

The future problems

Well, of course the future isn’t problem-free. The future faces problems
from a very familiar card- Donphan Prime. Donphan OHKOs Magnezone’s easily and
Yanmega does nothing on them because Donphan can easily just get around of
Yanmega with Catcher. I’ve tried to find a solution for this but the truth
there is none. Some may think that Donphan would be easily counterable with
Kingdra Prime but as soon you lay down the Horsea, it will be OHKOed. This
format doesn’t have a good Donphan counter and that’s why Donphan turned into a
very good card in this format – it’s almost impossible to OHKO and abuses
Catcher and Max Potion very well.

If you want to do something about Donphan in Magnezone/Yanmega, I suggest
running 1-2 Pluspowers. Magnezone needs normally 4 energies to OHKO Donphan,
which is simply too much. With Pluspowers Magnezone needs “only” 3 energies to
OHKO Donphan. That is an ok amount but they will just build another Donphan and
OHKO your Magnezone back. Donphan is only a stage1 Pokémon so it’s a lot easier
to get into play than Magnezone Prime. It’s tough to admit but the future has
no true answer against Donphan Prime.

There is more to the future than you may first think of

Since we have changed the idea of Magnezone/Yanmega so radically, there are
a few things you could consider running in Magnezone/Yanmega.

First, because we are already running Zekrom like energy accelerators why not
run Zekrom? Zekrom would be awesome in match-ups like mirror or Reshiplosion
where it can OHKO almost anything. Zekrom would be a great opener too – if you
open with Yanma or Zekrom and Collector in hand, you can probably get aT1
Zekrom hitting 120 damage. It will hurt any deck and give you time to set-up
the rest of your field.

Pluspower. I mentioned about it earlier and will mention it again. The extra 10
damage are crucial against various things. Reshiram has 110 HP after 2
Afterburners, Yanmega Prime has 110 HP, Donphan has 160HP(Resistance + Body)
etc. Pluspower is a great tech for Yanmega/Magnezone because its differences in damages are
huge(40,50,70,100,150 etc.). With Pluspower you can save the 1 crucial energy many
times, which may win you the game.

Seeker. You can play this instead of SSU or you can play SSU and Seeker. With
Seeker you don’t have to flip and you may get some occasional Seeker donks
because your opponent doesn’t expect Seeker. Seeker helps recycling key cards
like Pachirisu and Shaymin so it would be a great add to this deck if you have
some room for it.

More energy. Yes 12 may still not be enough. If you find yourself struggling
with 12 energies I would recommend to add your energies to 14. That way you can
also put in Rescue Energies, which help greatly when Magnezones are KOed.

Match-ups

Well this is it, where things get interesting. I will rate the most popular
match-ups for both Past and Future because I’m sure many people still play the
Yanmega/Magnezne/Kingdra/Jirachi version of this deck.

Stage1 variantsThe past: This was one of the best match-ups
of the last format. It has variables which decide how the match goes. If stage1
decks runs Reshiram or not (this one is huge because it decides if the deck has
a proper counter against Kingdra or not), how both players handle their energy
attachments, what kind of hands do the stage1 deck draw from Judges and of
course – how the Reversal flips go. Well now we can rule out the last variable –
Reversal flips, what does it mean in practice? It means that Donphan can just
sit in the front and kill everything with Catcher (excluding Yanmegas). Yanmega
can try to do the same (use Catchers and hit 70 to anywhere) but yeah I guess
you figured it out already, Yanmega is bad at OHKOin things unlike Donphan.
Catcher makes this match-up pretty one-sided – Donphan just rolls over
Magnezone even though it has Kingdra in it, thanks to Catcher.

The Future: Unlike before, now we don’t have Judges, Reversals or even Kindra in this
match-up. What we have then? A lot of Magnezones and Lost Burns. The number one
goal for The Future is to KO Phanpys/Donphans as soon as possible. The Future
don’t have to worry about Catchers to Magnezones because it will already have
Magnezone in the front line. You have fuel Lost Burns as soon as possible an KO
the Donphans. After that you can play freely. Use Magnezones and Yanmegas
wisely because as long as they play something like Yanmega/Donphan/Zoroark, you
have the edge with your Yanmega. Yanmega is an easy OHKO to Magnezone(even
easier with PlusPower) and Zoroark is just bad against Yanmega. You, however
have to be careful against Zoroark because they can do some crazy things with
their Foul Play and your Lost Burn.

Zekrom/Tornadus

The Past: Yanmega/Magnezone has some serious problems with a speed like Zekrom/Tornadus
– no matter of the variation. Both, Kingdra and Yanmega have Weaknesses to
Zekrom so go figure how to beat this match-up. Yanmega is OHKOd by a Strike Blt
fueled Outrage and Kingdra needs only 1 Pluspower after that. Both Kingdra and
Yanmega are unable to KO Zekrom even after 1 Strike Bolt. Tornadus gives this
match-up some more instability. Usually Zekrom speed is enough in this match-up
to win the game. The past has no answers for multiple Zekrom OHKOs because it
has no decent energy acceleration.

The Future: The greatest thing about the future is its energy
acceleration. It can manage easily 3 direct OHKOs against Zekrom – at least after
Strike Bolt. It also has a larger Magnezone line so it’s not difficult to get
another one hitting even though Zekrom uses double PlusPowers to OHKO you back.
The only difference in this match-up compared to the past’s match-up is that
you can use Magnezone as your main attacker – and that’s what makes the whole difference
in this match-up. You can continuously OHKO them but they canät you – simply
put, you win the prize race. Of course it’s no to be forgotten that
Zekrom/Tornaduses speed is still exceptional – even the future may have some
problems in the early game if it’s having a slow set-up.

Reshiram/Typhlosion

The Past: This was always 50-50 in my
opinion and the true variable in this match-up were Reversal Flips. Now we
don’t have to flip anymore so Magnezone gets Typhlosion in the active Position
always and ReshiPlosion gets anything in the active Position. I think the
tables haven’t turned in this one. It’ still 50-50 and this time it’s all about
consistency and if ReshiPlosion is able to OHKO Magnezones once they come into
play. If they do OHKO them, their Typhlosions will be kept alive because
Yanmega/Magnezone once again has nothing to OHKO them with in play.

The Future: Here the difference is once again all about the energy
acceleration. Flare Destroy doesn’t hurt you that much anymore because of Energy
Retrieval and Flower Shop Lady. You have an access to continuos OHKO on
Typhlosions and once you have this option, you must do it. If you try to win
the prize race in a Magnezone vs. Reshiram game, even this deck’s energy
acceleration doesn’t match into that. Once you take care of their energy
accelerators, you’re free to attack with Yanmega while attacking occasionally
with Magnezone to kill the most dangerous Reshirams. Remember, you can hit 70
to Reshiram with only 1 energy on it because its Outrage does only after
Sonicboom and doesn’t OHKO Yanmega. If you’re able to get Typhlosions KOed
before they do a serious harm to you by loading every Reshiram attack ready,
you have a great change winning this game.

Magneboar

The Past: In theory this is an
autowin for the past. It takes Emboars easily away with Jirachi or Magnezone
and after that Magneboar is useless. This was a good match for the past in the
previous format and it’s now also.

The Future: Well, the future may not have Jirachi to devolve Emboars
but as stated earlier, 150 damage is piece of cake for this deck. Once Emboar
is played, it will be KOed the next turn. The future is also faster so it will
have a prize lead so Magneboar can’t win the game by manually loading its
attackers. Easy match-up.

Gothitelle/Reuniclus

The Past: You can OHKO them or
just snipe and devolve their Reuniclus. You can also disturb them with Judge so
they don’t even get a set-up.. Nearly an autowin for the past.

The Future: Well , you can OHKO them even easier! This match-up is simply too easy because of
the huge energy amount the future is running.

Mew/Vileplume/Yanmega/Techs

The past & future: It’s
useless to rate these match-ups differently because MewBox/Vileplume variants’
match-ups are always hard to rate. It’slightly favorable for Yanmega/Magnezone
variants, because Mew is too weak and Yanmega has the weakness to Magnezone. The
future has a slight helper in this match-up as well because of Shaymin. You can
move the energies to the Magnezone Mew switches to the active position with
Muk’s attack. It’s slightly favorable for both variants just like before.

The key of the future

Well as you may have noticed, it seems like the
future has no worse match-ups than the past and it’s true. I have stated many
times that consistency will win in this format and I will state it a lot more
times in the future. The future IS consistency. You can’t afford getting slow
starts in this format where decks like Zekrom/Tornadus can easily end the game
in 5 of your turns. If you want to win, the deck you’re playing can’t be
inconsistent.

Conclusion

In my opinion the future version of the
Magnezone/Yanmega has a lot more answers against today’s metagame than the past
version. Its key elements are consistency, hard-hitting capability more than 2
times in a game and a superior draw engine compared to any deck of the format.
It gets everything when it needs them. If you aren’t yet a part of the future,
I suggest you’ll at least try the future out and see if it works for you.

That’s for Magnezone/Yanmega. Hope you enjoyed the read and don’t hesitate in
giving feedback and comments! If you have any questions feel free to leave a
message to the comment field or e-mail me to: thedeckout@gmail.com.
I'll improve my blog by adding more pictures for the future entrys so be sure
to look forward for it!

// Be back to The Deck Out this Friday when
you’ll get full analysis of the new ranking system – Championship Points and my
thought and predictions about it. Be sure not to miss this exclusive article!

8 comments:

I like the way you organised your article through the past/future comparison (even though I didn't play all summer so I don't know a lot about the "past" (HGSS-BW metagame)).I also enjoy how you try to understand the keys to the game and not only some specific details. "The future IS consistency", especially, seems to be a great summary.

Luby; Thanks for input, I like to make things differently because I think there are enough sites that are stating the obvoius - I like to take the gaming one step beyond. I'll make an entry of all metagame decks, so ZPS will be among them. I just have so much to write but only time for 2 updates a week. I promise, I will publish an entry of ZPS in 3 weeks!

Kuip: In early game with Magnetic Draw yes - in the late game probably not, but as I said Yanmega serves only the purpose to get the easy prizes early game. Even with Copycat and Judge it's difficult to match hand sizes if you want to Catcher (what you usually want to do when attacking with Yanmega) because you should be use able to use the Catcher before the Judge/copycat.

Also, it's good to understand that in this metagame only random decks can go to handsizes of 7 or more. And for those situations you have Judge. Also, you can get more cards into your hand with cards like Sage's and Energy Retrieval. Getting the equal hand size isn't as easy than with big Copycat/Judge counts but it's always possible if you play smart.

Have been eyeing your blog since the first few posts and its been a marvelous read. I know you have a ton of things to write about with so little time, especially the many metagame decks we have this format, but I hope you do a write up on Reshiboar. I know, I know, many have told me ReshiPhlosion is the way to go, but I'm keeping faith with it and also hoping experienced people like you may shed some light on it post-Worlds. Its my deck for Battle Roads anyhow. :)

Aaron: Great to hear. Reshiboar was a last minute addition to my BR metagame entry, so it wasn't high on my list of articles but we'll see what happens in the Battle Roads. I will decide the order of the decks, I will be analyzing, on how well they do in the Battle Roads. Some updates will come late because I have so much to write about and only 2 updates a week, so I hope for patience :D but I promise I will make a Reshiboar article in 3 weeks! Thanks for following my blog.

Baby mario: Yeah, I think there is no point explaining things that are the same because those things have been explained on many sites many many times. If I write something not generally agreeable, I'll always explain why.

Thanks for your comments guys, it's always great when someone comments because then I know someone is reading these!

For Donphan there is Tornadus as a counter (which, I know isnt in the list) except he may not be the greatest fit for the deck (Pachi/Shamin might help it with energy accelleration though), and may wreck consistancy.